Bedsonline continues Chinese expansion

Bedsonline launches new website ahead of ITB China on 16-18 May 

• New Chinese language website is WeChat enabled and contains content for retail travel agents to increase sales
• Bedsonline has registered 98% growth in China in the year to date[1]
• Since entering China in 2013 it has become the tenth biggest market for Bedsonline globally

Shanghai – Bedsonline, the leading global provider of accommodation and complementary products exclusively for travel agencies, has announced today – ahead of ITB Shanghai on 16-18 May –  the launch of an enhanced Chinese language website as part of the company’s strategy to continue outperforming in this key market.

This new Chinese language website forms the cornerstone of Bedsonline’s new client acquisition program and contains relevant and attractive content for travel agencies such as articles focused on tips and tools for travel agents and eBooks. The new website is fully integrated with WeChat through an automated client acquisition program created especially for this key market; and a new home page has been designed following expert advice from local China- digital marketing consultants.

China is already a key strategic market for Bedsonline despite entering the market in only 2013, growing to become the 10^th biggest source market for Bedsonline globally and growing sales by 98% in the current year to date.

Currently Bedsonline has an extended sales force team of 15 sales managers who cover the whole Greater China region, including Hong Kong, Taiwan and Macao.

Following the integration of Tourico Holidays and GTA – both with strong presence in Asia-Pacific – into the same group to which Bedsonline forms a part of, there is now a portfolio of over 170,000 hotels available to travel intermediaries globally via Bedsonline’s proprietary B2B technology platform.

Stuart Dale, Regional Director Retail Travel Agents Asia commented: “Firstly I would like to congratulate the whole marketing team who have worked really hard to launch a new Chinese language website for Bedsonline in a relatively short time. This ambitious project has come about after months of hard work, hand in hand with our local sales team.

“China is a strategic market for Bedsonline and we would like to take advantage of the integration of Tourico Holidays and GTA into the group which Bedsonline belongs, to provide a wider, more competitive range of products to the Chinese travel retailers – now totalling over 170,000 hotels. The time is now. With this unbeatable offering it’s the moment to commit to the market and leverage our collective global practice with local knowledge and a complete professional sales force which will continue to serve this fast-growing travel market.”

Vincent Zha, Regional Manager Greater China added: “We are excited about our new website launch and the important role it will play in our future go-to-market strategy. By offering our travel agency subscribers attractive content such as eBooks, we can help them to increase sales.

“Bedsonline has big plans for the Chinese market, where in 2017 there were 127 million Chinese outbound travellers and already China is the largest outbound travel market in the world.  Outbound tourism in China is booming as a result of the growing middle class. Whilst the major urban centres of Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen account for most of the outbound travel demand among Chinese nationals, there’s also a gradual increase in international travellers from smaller cities and towns – and we’re targeting travel agents in that niche too.

“According to the China National Tourism Administration, almost 5 billion domestic trips were made in China in 2017. Therefore, we are also working hard to expand our local accommodation portfolio to respond to the demands of travellers.”

[1]All figures and data quoted in this press release refer to Total Transaction Value (TTV) from the current fiscal year (starting 1 October, 2017) made via the Bedsonline platform.